A Tooele City couple is facing multiple child endangerment charges after they were found smoking marijuana with children held in an adjacent room.
Tyler Lee Wakefield, 26, and Jaycee Blake Shields, 26, are charged with five counts of third-degree felony endangerment of a child or elder adult.
According to a probable cause statement from Tooele City police, the Tooele Drug and Task Force responded to the residence of Wakefield and Shields on Stansbury Avenue on Oct. 26. While clearing the house, officers found Wakefield and Shields in the basement.
In the room containing the suspects, there was a heavy odor of burned marijuana, the statement said. Shields told officers their two daughters were in an adjacent bedroom.
Officers discovered the bedroom door had a rope tied around the door handle to prevent it from being opened, according to the probable cause statement. After removing the rope, officers discovered the two young girls in the bedroom, which “wreaked of urine and was very untidy.”
Another one of Wakefield and Shield’s children, a juvenile male, was also discovered in the house at the time, the statement said. Officers said the entire house smelled of burned marijuana.
Marijuana was found in the suspects’ bedroom and the door to their room did not close entirely, according to the probable cause statement. Shields and Wakefield admitted to smoking marijuana in their bedroom earlier in the day.
Shields and Wakefield are scheduled to make their initial appearance in 3rd District Court on Tuesday at 8:58 a.m. before Judge Robert Adkins.